Introduction

If you’ve read a few of my articles, you’ve probably gotten the impression from me that I’m not your typical individual. Slightly narcissistic, I know, but I like to think that the way I approach my work is unconventional. I have always been deeply fascinated by literature, not by books per se but constructing nuanced written works that resonate with myself and others. In primary school, I had been quite good at English and Maths, however English was always my strongest out of the 2.

This carried through into GCSE and then A-Levels, where in college I became so good at critical evaluation that English was my easiest subject out of the 3 A-Levels I studied. Again, quite egotistical but I think if you’re good at something, you should be able to flaunt your talents. It’s like how lots of STEM students can just comprehend Maths and/or Science much better than me. Some things just ‘click’ with people and there’s no shame in that.

At the same time, technology has always been something which has maintained a level of intrigue for me. I grew up playing video games, starting off with the PS1 and playing Toy Story (which was actually so fun, even if the tangled wires and stiff joysticks weren’t that great in hindsight); this then moved to the PS3, where I found my favourite video game franchise: Saints Row.

While far from a perfect franchise, I had always loved its absurd and satirical take on the GTA formula. Plus, when I got to Level 50 and had unlimited ammo for my guns, that was incredible. My biggest enjoyment came from customising ‘The Boss’, as you’re referred to in-game. I had also dabbled a little in playing the PS2, where I played Gun and The Getaway (never got past the first part because I was a young, inexperienced kid who didn’t know how to explore open-worlds).

Moreover, I really began to embrace forging my own identity through the Xbox 360’s Avatars, spending WAY too long customising a set of polygons. So worth it though. They should bring that back honestly, the new profile pictures that current consoles use feel a little bit soulless and less personalised.

From the media player to Spotify:

The Xbox 360 is what introduced me to the media player, which was essentially like a Spotify prototype. I remember the first time I played GTA V alongside Owl City’s Fireflies. Absolute cinema. While this does seem very basic, you have to understand that there was no direct digital integration with music apps, although Spotify was founded in April 2006 and opened its UK public registration in February 2009.

While Spotify did introduce its Apps Service in November 2011 (which allowed 3rd party developers to create applications within the Spotify software), it wouldn’t be until January 2015 that consoles would embed Spotify within their services via Sony’s announcement of PlayStation Music. They launched PlayStation Music on March 30th 2015, available for the PS3, PS4 and Sony Xperia (oh god, this was my first ever phone. Weren’t exactly the fastest or best quality). Spotify came to Windows on October 24th 2017 and on Xbox consoles on Halloween.

Instead, there was a reliance on USB sticks which would contain song files. I feel like I sound so old when I say that but it’s true. Of course, this process is streamlined to the media streaming applications available on current gen consoles.

Then, as I got older, while I did play games for the sake of entertainment (e.g – competing with my brother and dad on Gran Turismo and Mortal Kombat), I developed my critical thinking through education and engaging with more diverse games. In doing so, I began to assess their quality from a narrative and structural standpoint. Was the writing strong? Were the characters fleshed out or shallow? Was the plot coherent or messy?

The game vs narrative dichotomy:

A common term you will hear nowadays regarding the gaming vs narrative dichotomy is ludonarrative dissonance. This was coined by Clint Hocking in a review for Bioshock, stating how it “seems to suffer from a powerful dissonance between what it is about as a game, and what it is about as a story”. Many scholars will inform you that games cannot tell stories and that stories cannot be gamified.

I say that it’s up to you and your tastes.

I believe games most certainly have the capacity to tell stories like any other media form, and in fact can do so to much better effect due to the active player involvement. Just take a look at games like Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Mafia for games which arguably balance gameplay with compelling stories (this is up for dispute due to GTA IV’s controversial driving, RDR2‘s stiff combat mechanics and Mafia‘s empty open-world once completing the main story).

However, games can be created for the sake of gameplay. One game that comes to mind for me is Rayman Legends, which although I think may actually have a story, I play for the engaging traversal and combat. Or State of Decay 2, a zombie RPG I play all the time because it doesn’t require true emotional investment but rather a chance to switch off my brain and have fun.

This is all subjective but I think to dismiss video games as simply ‘games’ without considering their storytelling potential dampens their quality within the mainstream.

High school and college:

In high school, I played games quite a bit but this reduced over time due to GCSE exam season and increased revision. In doing so, I began to find aspects of education actually somewhat enjoyable, such as creating my own radio advertisement and book poster in Creative iMedia. This was my first chance at interlinking critical analysis with media production, laying the foundation for my subsequent A-Level choices.

It also felt like I was actually being educated with some practical skills. At the same time, I was also really enjoying Computer Science. Not so much the coding but the theory knowledge, such as the ethics and the Internet. The opportunity to write about the issues of computing in both mock and the actual exams felt like the perfect chance to weave in essay writing skills into a digital perspective.

Once I finished GCSEs, I played a LOT during the summer. I was trophy hunting like there was no tomorrow, while also widening my gaming tastes. I played one of my favourite games of all time: Detroit: Become Human. While far from perfect, it is a game that has stuck with me, allowing me to embrace critical analysis, intertwined with themes of technology.

I also played The Last of Us Part 2, a game which I didn’t really enjoy too much at first but has grown on me A LOT. I think because of English, I was able to consider more alternative perspectives as this is usually rewarded with high marks. Moreover, it also reduces any sort of cognitive bias. It is probably why I am able to sympathise with Abby Anderson, a highly infamous figure now in the gaming industry but one I am glad exists.

Then, college finally arrived. I had originally chosen to study A-Level Sociology alongside English Combined and Computer Science but after my taster session and speaking to my friend Aimee, I decided that A-Level Media Studies was more aligned with not just my interests but future career path. The one thing I look back on which really dampens my view of college is the insane amount of time I spent working, rather than actually having fun and enjoying myself. The endless hours of assignments, revision and extra work I would do to stay on top of my studies was almost excessive.

It led to several months where I hadn’t played a game (instead, I substituted this with watching films and TV, since I didn’t have the motivation to partake in playing). When I eventually reached this summer, it took me a good while to get back into gaming and even now I wouldn’t say I have that same spark I once had before college. While it was worth it as it allowed me to study at one of the most prestigious universities in the UK, it is still quite unfortunate.

Why I chose to study my A-Levels:

My A-Level combination is definitely a unique one, one which I think nobody in my college during my 2 years or even before had chosen to study. Media and English were very common but not alongside Computer Science. I was the only person in both Computer Science classes to study English over Maths. Maybe that’s why I found the mathematical concepts so much more difficult.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not the worst at Maths. Binary calculations – although they weren’t easy – were manageable and I can work out arithmetic rather well. It was just the ‘logical’ side of it I could never comprehend, such as Boolean Algebra and Truth Tables. I always tell people I was close to a Grade 6 in GCSE Maths because it’s true, however that 5 will always be a stain on my academic record. Now, I want to try and convince you why my subject combo is vital, especially for those wanting to pursue a career in the media industry.

My subjects: A-Level English Language and Literature, Media Studies and Computer Science

English Language and Literature:

English provides skills in literary and linguistic terminology, critical and comparative analysis whilst developing creativity and considering contextual factors. For me, I was able to evaluate literary (Othello, The Great Gatsby and A Streetcar Named Desire) and non-literary texts (within the Voices in Speech and Writing anthology) while also refining my written expression. English at A-Level embraces this interdisciplinary approach through different linguistic branches, such as sociolinguistics.

I was able to learn about Erving Goffman’s contributions, such as Face Theory and Footing Theory, both frameworks revolving around the structure of communication. These theories – alongside some English Language Theories I taught myself such as Lakoff’s Genderlects – were incredibly useful within Media, since text is a primary mode of communication.

Media Studies:

Within my personal statement, I defined media as ‘contemporary English’. Because in a sense, it is. Media covers a broad range of disciplines, mixed with elements of English, Sociology, History, Business and light aspects of Computer Science. When we discuss media, we have to consider the technical aspects of production while also the construction of representations and its societal impacts. While it does borrow from several fields, I think it has established itself enough to be a recognised discipline.

Additionally, Media helped contextualise textual analysis and rhetoric within cultural contexts, such as newspaper front pages (e.g – The Daily Mirror vs The Times). The media – whether we care to admit it or not – manipulates and shapes our views, whilst providing channels for discussion and self-expression. My favourite aspect of Media Studies was the ‘English’ side of it via media language and representation, deconstructing how individuals are portrayed via written and visual elements whilst applying theories (e.g – Sophia Loren in her 1965 Vogue magazine cover).

However, we must also consider its economic relevance and industry context, since the media industries generate large amounts of revenue. Not my favourite part but still necessary. The coursework also provided genuine practical skills, where my brief allowed me to develop a national and international magazine front cover, alongside a website on WIX containing a specialist article. This allowed me to get into the mindset of a media producer via photo shoots, documentation and schedule planning (I used a Gaant chart on Excel to structure my coursework).

Computer Science:

While perhaps the most distinct out of my 3 subjects, there are still tangible links regarding Computer Science with English and Media.

English and Computer Science:

For instance, I believe Computer Science and English are tied by 3 key ideas: structure, meaning and interpretation. Both subjects require its scholars to analyse a set of rules and apply them to produce coherent outputs. Regardless if it’s sentences, pseudocode or programming, the same principle applies.

For example, when we covered BNF (Backus-Naur Form), it felt very much like a topic tailored to me. BNF is a notation that describes a programming language’s syntax (how words are arranged), written in the following format:

<letter>::= a|b|c|d|e|f (continued)

| → Represents a choice (in this case, a letter can be a/b/c/d/e/f)
::= → This just separates an item from its definition

Hopefully that makes sense. If not, don’t worry, it took me a while to wrap my head around it. That is just a way we can visualise computers understanding English.

Next, programming languages. Specifically, high-level languages (these are languages closer to what humans use, which allow us to write programs using keywords similar to English). In Computer Science, there are 3 types we learnt about:

• Imperative – Entered as a list of instructions a computer follows (e.g – Python)
• Object-oriented – Uses objects to group instructions and data, which can be further grouped into classes (e.g – C#)
• Declarative – Describes what a program needs to do (e.g – SQL)

The terms ‘imperative’ and ‘declarative’ have very similar definitions to how they’re used in English. An imperative sentence is a sentence which is a command and a declarative sentence is a statement.

Assembly language also contains some relevance via the implementation of mnemonics. You will recognise mnemonics in regards to revision, as they’re essentially memory triggers designed to help you remember something (e.g – BIDMAS in maths is a mnemonic, in the form of an acronym). For Computer Science, these came in the form of short instruction codes (e.g – LDR, ADD, SUB).

Additionally, there is also the more obvious example of the Moral, Legal and Cultural Issues topic regarding computing, which required an extensive essay response. I really enjoyed this topic. It was just an excuse to waffle about something I was good at. One time, I had spent so long on said question that I used up additional paper but sadly I didn’t achieve very high marks on this mock assessment. I still really enjoyed writing it though and here I am studying a degree that essentially merges these 2 interests.

Media and Computer Science:

The most evident link between these 2 disciplines is technology. Media in its several iterations has always been dependent on technological advancements to an extent in widening its effect. From the development of the printing press in the late 15th Century to what is now defined as ‘new media’, technology has fundamentally enabled communication to flourish.

While Computer Science began in its early stages as a supplement to Maths and Physics, it grew into its own distinctive field once mathematicians such as Charles Babbage began developing the early versions of calculators. Digital media requires the foundational knowledge and implementation from computer scientists via coding to serve the public on platforms.

An area that always interested me between the 2 was media regulation and computational ethics. I had learnt the relevant legislation within GCSE Computer Science – such as the Data Protection Act – which governs the digital realm and applied this in relation to digital media. For example, assessing newspaper regulation by considering the morally dubious actions of News of the World.

Moreover, my coursework for both of these subjects allowed me to delve into web development. In Media, it was more of a frontend process through WIX’s pre-built software, allowing me to focus on creative skills. In Computer Science, I had built Got to Grammar from the ground up via backend and frontend development, using HTML, Python and CSS. This helped blend a creative and technical skillset which I am very grateful for.

Conclusion

Now, I understand that Maths and Computer Science very much go hand-in-hand but we shouldn’t downplay the significance of language and meaning within computation. After all, programming is built on communicating with a computer to produce an output and there is only so far numerical values can get you.

In addition, digital skills is so crucial anywhere within the current job market, especially for ambitious media individuals, since digital media is redefining how we consume and interpret content.

While this combo wasn’t easy (especially Computer Science), it made complete sense in retrospect to choose these 3 subject areas.

Any questions? Feel free to contact me via johnjoyce4535@gmail.com!

Check out my last piece: A Linguistic Revival: Returning To College

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